Marvel Expands ‘The Avengers’ Franchise With ‘Item 47′ Short Film

One of the most impressive things about this year’s Avengers movie was how it juggled all the disparate elements presented in films like Captain America and Thor and created something that felt like a cohesive Marvel Universe on the big screen. Now, that universe is getting a little bigger: As Entertainment Weekly reports, San Diego’s Comic-Con International will see a screening of a 12-minute “One-Shot” short film set in the world of The Avengers, set to be included on the DVD release this fall.Written by Eric Pearson and starring Party Down‘s Lizzy Caplan, Item 47 focuses on a pair of small-time crooks who find the title object, a misplaced super-gun left by Loki’s invasion of Manhattan, which presumably causes both hilarity and super-crime to ensue. It sounds like a pretty interesting premise for something that could definitely add to what they’re trying to build with the larger films, but more importantly, it represents a shift in how the Movie Universe is being built.

At 12 minutes, Item 47 is three times longer than Pearson’s previous shorts, both of which focused on Agent Coulson, and according to EW, plans are in place for similar shorts to go along with the next round of sequels. Obviously, Item 47 features original characters, but given the massive library of characters that Marvel has in their library and the… let’s just go ahead and call them “small chances” that some of the more obscure ones could actually be featured, the cinematic “One-Shots” seem like the perfect place to let them shine.

Admittedly, I never thought we’d actually see a character like Arnim Zola on the big screen, but he’s all over that Captain America movie, so I suppose anything’s possible. And apparently Marvel Studios’ Louis D’Esposito feels the same way, showing reluctance to dilute the impact of characters that could be used later. But by that same logic, this could be the perfect way to get a little more out of relatively minor characters that have already been introduced to the movie-going public.

What I’m getting at here is that when Thor 2 comes out, I want at least fifteen minutes of The Warriors Three.

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